Site Stats And Other Goodies

Dec 8, 2007

Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse has laid out plans for a combined soccer/ice hockey stadium in Zurich that would host the city's three biggest professional sports teams (that would be Grasshoppers, F.C. Zurich and ZSC Lions, for those of you not in the know). I don't think I've ever heard of anything like this before. There are renderings of what the place would look like here.

They aren't envisioning a "hybrid" structure but actually two different stadia (along with a shopping center) under the same roof. Neither would be particularly large, but then Switzerland is not a particularly large country; 20,000 capacity for the soccer grounds and half that for the hockey rink.

The idea is born out of necessity. Where Switzerland's largest city once had two separate soccer grounds and an ice hockey stadium, they now basically have no structures dedicated to either sport. Grasshoppers longtime stadium, the Hardturm, was torn down earlier this year and F.C. Zurich's has been converted to a track and field stadium, where the two teams now play their home games in a less-than-ideal setting. The hockey team used to play its home games at a converted cycling track (I swear I'm not making this up; I've been to games there in the 1980s) and now plays in a renovated version of that same arena.

Well, first of all, the ground of FC Zürich (Letzigrund) has ALWAYS been a track and field stadium.

And this idea of a duplex arena in Zurich has NOT been presented by Credit Suisse, but just by some random architects. Credit Suisse is the owner of the property and they have rejected this project right away as they still plan to realise the pentagonal football stadium with a capacity of 30'000 on the same spot.

There is however such a duplex arena (football, hockey) planned in Biel/Bienne (hockey stadium capacity: 7'000, football stadium capacity: 6'000). Included in the project will be also an additional ice-skating and curling rink and several football fields. The name of the project is "Stades de Bienne" and it has been approved in a vote by the citizens of the city. It will be opened somewhere around 2010/2011.